General Notes

Cartridge Header

Almost all prototype versions borrow the header from Sonic the Hedgehog, with the only tweak being a 2 added for the titles. This was only changed to the final version's header in Beta 8. The Nick Arcade and Simon Wai versions use Sonic the Hedgehog's serial code, while all the beta versions have Sonic 2's serial code.

Tails Glitch

If Tails jumps and hits an enemy after Sonic dies, the score will continually increase until the fade-out. This happens because, while all Badniks are frozen and can't be destroyed when Sonic dies, Tails can keep moving, get stuck in an enemy, and continuously gain points – a bug that (as seen in the video at right) awards 1,452,800 points and nearly 30 extra lives.

This bug is mostly present in Beta 4 and above, but can be done in just about any prototype version. It was fixed in the final by having Tails immediately go into his flying animation when Sonic dies, but can still be done in the final version due to another bug.

When going up slopes with Tails' AI, if Tails does not successfully make it, its AI will walk back to a stop and then attempt to spin dash up the slope. If Sonic dies during this time, Tails will continue performing this action until the Spin Dash is released, which then puts him into the flying animation described previously. If you take Player 2's controller to control Tails after Sonic dies and before Tails' scripted action finishes, you will have full control of Tails until the game fades to black, allowing this bug to occur when Tails jumps into an enemy, racking up massive points and extra lives.